Participation in bus rider count vital

Parents of Buncombe County and Asheville public school students, how does the prospect of longer bus rides to school for your kids sound?

How about fewer buses?

It's a prospect that is not theoretical, but quite real as local officials grapple with funding shortfalls. And that's a reason that it's important for parents whose children use school buses or anticipate them having to use the bus pay attention this week.

Oct. 1-5 is the period when rider counts that decide future funding for transportation costs are conducted, and city and county administrators are urging parents to put their kids on the bus this week.

The city and county are already operating with less funding for the combined bus fleet after a $10 million statewide cut for pupil transportation two years ago. To avoid even steeper cuts, it's critical that high ridership counts be achieved each day, for both morning and afternoon routes, during the week.

Now, to some it may sound like the rallying cry for riders is gaming the system. After all, even in a bumpy economy we live in a relatively prosperous area, and a great many kids can count on their parents for a ride, right?

Yes, and no. The parent giving the children a ride today could be switched to a different work shift tomorrow, or fall ill, or be laid off or a hundred different scenarios. That's when the fallback option of counting on the bus turns into a very necessary Plan A.

And the thing is, if your child isn't counted among the ridership this week, the funding needed should your child begin riding in spring won't be there.

A great many parents and students already count on this service. It's not an area to be casual with when it comes to budgeting.

About three-quarters of a million students ride on some 14,000 school buses each and every school day across the Tar Heel state. In Buncombe County, the equivalent of the population of a small town, 16,000 students, are daily riders.

The state determines its funding through three factors: the number of buses being operated, total expenditures and the number of students riding.

That's why the stakes are so high this week. Buncombe County Schools Transportation Director Joe Hough said, "If a child is going to ride a school bus to and/or from school during the course of the school year, it is very important that he/she ride as many days as possible during the week of the count. Otherwise, changes in service such as combining routes, increased multiple runs, and a reduction in the number of buses operated, may be required next year if ridership and transportation funding is insufficient to justify our current service schedule."

Buncombe County School Superintendent Tony Baldwin added, "Driving students to and from school puts an unnecessary financial burden on families, dramatically impacts traffic adjacent to school sites and affects air quality when thousands of cars idle in line to pick up or drop off students. Sure, many students would prefer door-to-door transportation service from their parents, but it just isn't practical for families or for school transportation departments in these tough economic times."

So the message this week is simple:

Get on the bus.

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Participation in bus rider count vital

Parents of Buncombe County and Asheville public school students, how does the prospect of longer bus rides to school for your kids sound? How about fewer buses? It's a prospect that is not